


Atonement for One’s Actions

by laughy_sapphy_writes



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Angst, Arguing, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Guilt, Luke Signs Divorce Papers, Post-Mandalorian Season 2, Pre-Sequel trilogy, Sad Grogu | Baby Yoda, mentions of dead children, not inherently shippy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:42:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28393317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laughy_sapphy_writes/pseuds/laughy_sapphy_writes
Summary: Luke feels massive amounts of guilt after Ben Solo slaughters all of the younglings under his care at the temple. Only one youngling survives the tragedy, but the whole situation has left him emotionally scarred. The youngling’s father is deeply impacted by the state his child has been left in.
Relationships: Din Djarin & Grogu | Baby Yoda, Din Djarin & Luke Skywalker, Grogu | Baby Yoda & Luke Skywalker
Comments: 6
Kudos: 59





	Atonement for One’s Actions

Luke’s robes smelled like smoke. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to wash them in the past month, but to be fair, he hadn’t been able to bring himself to do anything since the tragedy occurred at the temple. He’d been spending his days in a mindless stupor, trying to escape in his thoughts through meditation or distractions, but ultimately failing. He felt empty, yet filled with grief; out of place yet dishearteningly grounded. A deep feeling of guilt shrouded his every thought, every feeling, every action, every single facet of his being. He closed his eyes and saw nothing but flames, heard nothing but screams, smelled nothing but smoke. He would start to sob without even realizing it until he felt the hot sting of tears falling down his cheeks. It wasn’t like he was going to stop himself either. After all, it was his fault that all of this had happened. It was his fault that Ben had burned down the temple.

It was his fault that all of the younglings were dead. 

There was a chance that some had survived, he figured. Perhaps they ran off before Ben could find them or managed to fight him off, but the countless number of bodies left in his wake proved to Luke that this was a slim chance. He had done his best to save all of the younglings left in the wreckage, starting out with the ones that were mercifully still alive - although they didn’t survive much longer - before moving on to recovering the dead bodies. A few of the families requested the body of their child afterwards for funerals and burials, but most of them told Luke that they wouldn’t be able to stand the sight of their murdered child, leaving Luke to deal with the bodies himself. That week had been the hardest for Luke to get through since the tragedy had occurred, and during that time, he wanted nothing more than to feel supported by his friends and family. This wasn’t a possible option, though, since they all - especially Leia and Han - had blamed Luke for what Ben had done. 

Now, he could only find comfort in two individuals: his old, trusted friend R2-D2; and the sole survivor of Ben’s slaughter, Grogu.

As eternally grateful Luke was that Grogu had survived, he felt terrible about everything that the child was having to go through. Due to his species’ slow aging process, he had only physically aged about a year in the fifteen years that Luke had been training him, but his skills with the force had developed so much that they rivaled the powers found in a fully-grown Jedi. Luke, admittedly, didn’t get to train with Grogu as much as he would’ve liked since he was often taken from the temple to go on trips with his father, but he was still one of Luke’s favorite students. The child had even learned to say a few words and could string together a couple of full sentences, although they were a bit jumbled due to his species’ speaking patterns. Since the tragedy, though, Grogu hadn’t said anything to anyone, least of all Luke. Grogu’s father, Din Djarin, had been so busy ruling over Mandalore that he hadn’t found the time to see him recently as much as he would’ve liked, but once he had heard that Grogu had been through some kind of traumatic experience, he promised to find him and take him home as soon as he could. Getting to see Din again and making sure Grogu got to be in good, capable hands was the only thing Luke had to look forward to these days.

Luke, Grogu and R2 had been staying in a small hut on Kashyyyk for the past three weeks that had been graciously, yet begrudgingly offered by Chewbacca. The hut was only being used temporarily until Luke could find a ship to take him off the planet since Han was too angry about Ben to lend him the Falcon. None of the Kashyyyk locals had any spare spaceships lying around, but a couple of them recommended some places where Luke could go to be alone. While he appreciated the advice, he had already decided where he was going to go once his stay in Kashyyyk was through: Mandalore. That way, he’d be able to ensure the safety of the tragedy’s only survivor, continue the legacy of the Jedi, and spend his days with the child and the father that he had grown rather fond of in the past fifteen years. The three of them had spent a lot of time together and been on a couple of adventures, and hopefully, there would be more to come in the future.

…

The sky was covered in several layers of clouds when Din arrived for Grogu, so Luke couldn’t even tell that Din’s ship was outside of his hut until it had made its way well into the atmosphere. As the Mandolorian ruler emerged from his ship’s bay doors, Luke stumbled out of his hut with R2 at his side and Grogu in his arms. Although he was aware that Grogu was big enough now that he didn’t have to be carried like a baby anymore, Luke always felt comforted holding Grogu as close to him as he could. The Mandalorian’s regal cape bellowed behind him as he continued to stalk towards the hut, and Luke couldn’t help but feel humbled at his own haggard appearance in comparison. Luke figured that Din wouldn’t mind much since the man was probably focusing more on his son than anything else. Din’s face was unreadable due to his mask, but Luke could sense a feeling of relief at seeing his son alive and well. Luke was partially sensing Din’s emotions with the force, but the Mandalorian’s body language was revealing enough, especially considering how much care he put into taking Grogu from Luke’s arms. Before Luke could tell Din how happy he was to see him and ask if he could live with them, he sensed Din’s mood turn from relief to fury. The force was promptly proven correct when Din punched Luke in the face with his free hand. 

“You better tell me what the hell happened to my kid in the next thirty seconds, or you’ll need to be prepared for a lot worse of a beating than that,” Din told Luke, each syllable dripping with seething rage.

“There… there was an attack at the temple. Your son was the only survivor,” Luke croaked out, rubbing his quickly bruising cheek. After this statement, Luke was punched a second time. This time, he fell over onto the ground and only managed to hoist himself up to his knees with the help of R2.

“I thought you said that my son would be safe as long as he was with you,” Din accused, shooting Luke a glare that he hoped would be evident despite the mask.

“I did keep him safe. He barely has a scratch on him!”

“The kid’s traumatized! He can’t say a word to me, he can barely look me in the eye, he even has bags under his eyes! It’s not like you kept any of the other children safe either. My son could’ve been any of them. Tell me, did you promise their parents that you would keep their children safe too?”

Luke felt a flash of anger for a moment before falling back into a deep despair. He averted his eyes from the Mandalorian and let his eyes fall to Grogu for a moment before his gaze fell to the ground. Din was right, of course, Grogu had been the only one to survive purely by chance, and he had promised each of his students’ parents that he would personally keep each of their children safe. On top of being a son of a tyrant that almost killed his own nephew, he was a cowardly liar who made promises he couldn’t keep and ran away to the middle of nowhere whenever he had problems he didn’t want to face. As much as he wanted someone to reassure him and tell him that he had done his best, Luke understood that everyone he knew had a reason to be angry at him. Han and Leia were distraught that their son had become a murderer under Luke’s care, the fellow Jedi had lost a full generation of younglings, and even his old masters, Obi-Wan and Yoda, were no longer answering his pleas for guidance due to the disrespect he had inflicted on the Jedi. It was foolish of him to believe that Din would feel any differently.

“I’m so sorry for everything that your son had to go through, truly. I can’t tell you how much I wish I could’ve prevented all of this from happening,” Luke apologized.

“Why couldn’t you have prevented it, exactly? Were you too busy, what, meditating?” Din asked mockingly in response.

“I got there as soon as I could. Don’t you think I would’ve stopped it from happening if I had the chance?”

“You’re a Jedi, dammit! You can move stuff with your mind and sense someone’s presence across the galaxy, but you’re telling me you can’t extinguish fires or prevent children - children under your supervision, no less - from being slaughtered?” Din continued to pry, causing Luke to grimace.

“That’s not exactly how the force works,” he replied, attempting to keep an even temper.

“You still betrayed my trust! You said you would look after my son and keep him from danger, and I believed you! I let you look after him because I was willing to do anything to protect him, and look what that got me! You know, Jedi like you always like to go on and on about how it’s your duty to preserve your legacy, but when other Jedi are in danger of being killed, you just sit back and let it happen! How could you be so careless with the lives of children when your job is to look after them?” Din started to shout, an evident sob forming.

Luke looked back up at Din and did his best to make eye contact with him through the mask. Din’s anger was dissipating into a sorrow that Luke had grown far too accustomed to since the tragedy. Both of them felt guilty about what happened to Grogu, but the only difference was that Luke didn’t have an outlet for the depression that their guilt had spurred. Luke wanted more than anything to be able to reason with Din and go back to the friendly terms they had come to before the tragedy occurred, but given how this interaction was going, that would no longer be a possibility. He could feel his chances of a somewhat normal and happy life slipping away from him the longer he looked at Din and felt his despair. Luke didn’t deserve a happy life, not after he had hurt everyone he had ever known.

“You’re right, Din. I don’t expect you to forgive me, and if you never do, I would understand completely. Just… believe me when I tell you that your son’s happiness means a great deal to me, and if I had it my way, nothing bad would ever happen as long as I was there to protect him. I’m sorry, I really, really am,” Luke told Din, making every syllable clearly heard.

After Luke said this, there was a long period of silence made up of unbroken eye contact and concerned beeps from R2. Then, after a minute or so, Din used his free hand to reach for his helmet and pull it off of his head. 

Luke hadn’t gotten to look at Din’s face since the two of them had first met. There were a few wrinkles here and there that weren’t there before which could’ve come from aging or stress, but most of his features were unchanged. The most noticeable difference was, by far, his eyes. When Din first met Luke, he was in distress over giving his son away and being thrust into a position of power he didn’t want, so his eyes definitely reflected his sadness. If Luke thought Din’s eyes were sad before, though, they had nothing on how his eyes looked at this moment. They were red around the edges, signifying that he had been crying a great deal, and the eyelids had puffed out a bit. Like his son, he had clear bags under his eyes, yet they were more pronounced on him. He had tear stains down his cheeks that must’ve been from earlier since Din wasn’t crying at the moment, although it looked like he could start crying again at any given point. 

Luke knotted his eyebrows and gave Din a sympathetic look which, considering the look that was returned to him, was not the intended reaction. Din glowered at Luke, a sneer forming on his lips, and he bent over Luke’s hunched form. Luke turned his face up towards Din’s, searching for meaning in his features. Then, as a last act of cruel justice, Din spit on Luke’s face. Luke squeezed his eyes shut and let his head fall in shame as Din wiped his mouth and proceeded to put his helmet back over his head.

“Don’t call me Din, you miserable waste,” the Mandalorian replied before turning and walking back to his ship. 

Grogu looked over his father’s shoulder to see the downtrodden heap of Luke Skywalker, wanting to call out to him, but not seeing how he could. He whimpered and buried his face into his father’s neck, wishing, hoping that his family could return to its former happiness and warmth. Luke was wishing for the same thing as Grogu, and secretly, the ruler of Mandalore was as well. None of them were willing to admit it, though, so Grogu and his father left Kashyyyk without a second of hesitation. As soon as they were gone, Luke broke down and fell to the ground, a puddle of tears slowly surrounding him. He knew that this was what he deserved for all of the pain he had caused everyone, so why had he still hoped that his suffering would cease? Why had he thought that Grogu and his father would still show him compassion after everything he had put them through?

Even as the ship left Kashyyk’s orbit, Grogu could still feel Luke’s pain.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m going to be honest, I haven’t actually seen the second season of the Mandalorian, so I apologize if this is out of character or if the terminology is wrong, etc. Also, I’m not used to writing angst, so this was definitely out of my comfort zone, writing wise. Regardless, I hoped you liked reading this!


End file.
